Teen singer songwriter Joshua Grant has gone from a little known grassroots artist and busker to a chart success story in a matter of months.

Despite playing just five live shows in his short career, Joshua’s career has got off to a staggering start, having supported one of the biggest names in UK pop, Tom Walker, bagged the top spot in the Scottish charts with his previous release Edinburgh and performed on BBC Scotland’s The Edinburgh Show.

He beat off stiff competition to land the support slot for Tom at The Caves in the capital back in February, flying home from New York where he was interning for The New York Times for a one day turnaround just to play the gig.

The independent artist reckons it was a formative experience. He said:

Despite being in New York for the date of the Tom Walker gig, there was no way I wasn’t doing it. Being picked for that show so early on in my career was invaluable so as soon as I got the email asking me to play, I was online booking my plane ticket back home for 24 hours. The gig was everything I wanted it to be the atmosphere, the crowd, the sound and spending time with Tom, it exceeded all my expectations.  

Tom had all the time in the world for me. I sat with him in his dressing room after the show and chatted for ages. He seemed like he really wanted to help artists like me and gave me some brilliant advice about how important support slots are to get you more attention. Getting that platform and my name on his bill was just brilliant.

Fast forward four months and Joshua was enjoying breakthrough success, sitting at number one on the Official Scottish Charts, number 34 on the Official UK Download Charts and in the top 10 worldwide on iTunes with Edinburgh– a track written and recorded in his childhood bedroom.

The homemade release beat the likes of Lady Gaga, Drake and Harry Styles in the week’s download standings and was played on the airwaves across Scotland.

Joshua recalls getting the news: 

When I saw the final chart position, I cried. I was sitting at home with my parents and it was just surreal. It’s amazing what can happen when people support grassroots artists and I can’t thank everyone enough who got behind that track. The reception from that has given me a lot of confidence going forward.

With a new found fanbase, Joshua’s eyes are now firmly on the future. The youngster, who lists The Snuts and Gerry Cinnamon among his musical idols released his latest single Transparent on Friday 30 October. 

Although Joshua first picked up a guitar aged nine he was recently inspired by The Snuts to make his own music. He begged his mum to buy him some recording gear for his Christmas after seeing The Snuts in concert and it was with this equipment that he first recorded Transparent. 

Originally written and uploaded to Spotify last year, Transparent has received some expert input for this release. Joshua has been rubbing shoulders with musical virtuosos including Boo Hewerdine and producer Mark Freegard, who have provided additional recording, mixing and mastering on the song.

Mark Ellis, known for his Grammy winning work on U2’s album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, can be heard on electric guitars and bass, and Chris Pepper features on drums.

When asked about the release of Transparent Joshua said:

Officially releasing Transparent feels like things have come full circle over the last year. I recorded the original version in my room and my guitar and vocals on this new version are from that recording so it’s still got that stripped back feel to it. I’m really excited to share the song with a wider audience now and hope the response is just as positive.

After the unexpected success of Edinburgh it was always going to be a difficult next release, but rest assured Transparent does not disappoint it only enhances the growing reputation of one of Scotland’s rising stars.

It starts out with Joshua and his acoustic guitar and highlights the strength of his vocal, before the lead guitar kicks in and then drives the melody of the track.

The track was originally written when Joshua found it difficult to express his own thoughts and used songwriting to do so, this is perhaps illustrated with the opening lines of “talk to me please, look me in the eyes, I know it’s hard but you don’t have to disguise, take of the mask”.

The full circle as Joshua says is completed with the re-release of Transparent, its an ideal choice as it really highlights the increasing confidence of his performance buoyed by his recent chart success.

Transparent is a fantastic reflective track with meaningful lyrics, a masterful melody and then the finish is perfect as it crashes out with a boisterous guitar riff.

If Transparent is the closing of the circle on the first phase of a promising career, then we won’t have long to wait until we hear the next steps with Joshua poised to release his next single at the end of November, I for one can’t wait to hear it !

Give Transparent a stream now:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2qVXeu6Ix6iVMwqNAdOfbP?si=ZqrdxMp0SvSy9dUIB7oEbg

Joshua Grant can be followed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify:

https://www.facebook.com/musicjoshuagrant

https://instagram.com/joshua.grantt?igshid=181kfgvgerlbw

https://twitter.com/joshua_grantt?s=21

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hBGtBGjmVvxqPUL7rrW7Y?si=zCkNdMvDT4WF6gEK2qH2FA